On the Editor’s Desk

Since most of the stuff I recommend is long out of print, I thought I’d put up a listing of just those books I managed to order over the net. I’m not necessarily recommending that you read these, but they did manage to impress me enough that I ordered them, new, sight unseen. And I only rarely do that.

Note that this page will be slowly disappearing as I move all my book reviews over to my dedicated review pages.

Watchmen by Alan Moore

Destined to be one of the seminal works of the (modern or dying, take your pick) superhero comics industry. Moore weaves a tale of millennial fever in a world where the atomic bomb is big, blue, and looks like us.
Buy Watchmen at Amazon!
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Programming Perl by Larry Wall & Randal L. Schwartz

If you already know programming, and want to learn Perl, Programming Perl is the best place to start. Includes a short overview of how Perl programming differs from C programming, and an indepth look at the structure and functions of Perl.
Buy Programming Perl at Amazon!
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Apocalypse Culture by Adam Parfrey

I haven’t read through this, but I (and my friends) have glanced through it and read it out of order. It’s kind of a ‘book zine’ style, some pages and entire chapters xeroxed. The section on Karen Greenlee tends to be most popular. Sex and death!
Buy Apocalypse Culture at Amazon!
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Bone by Jeff Smith

Simply drawn, with a simple, yet engaging story, kind of a cross between Barks’ Hughie, Dewey, and Louie and Indiana Jones with a bit of Tolkien thrown in. A fun story.
Buy Out from Boneville at Amazon!
Buy The Great Cow Race (Hardcover) at Amazon!
Buy Eyes of the Storm at Amazon!
Buy The Dragonslayer at Amazon!
Buy Rockjaw, Master of the Eastern Border at Amazon!
Buy Old Man’s Cave at Amazon!
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Writer’s Market by Kirsten Holm

Pretty much the major listing of publishers, which you can use to build up your collection of rejection letters. The CD-ROM version lets you build up rejection letters even faster!
Buy 2000 Writer’s Market at Amazon!
Buy 2000 Writer’s Market and CD-ROM at Amazon!
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Web Design in a Nutshell by Jennifer Niederst

If you are not a programmer, you’ll find O’Reilly’s “Web Design in a Nutshell” more useful than “Webmaster in a Nutshell”. “Web Design’ jettisons Perl programming and Javascript, and provides a reference for Cascading Style Sheets and graphics formats. You may even find both of these books useful, although there will then be a lot of overlap.
Buy Web Design in a Nutshell at Amazon!
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No Sense of Place by Joshua Meyrowitz

Haven’t had a chance to read this one yet. It was recommended to me years ago in Birmingham at the last WCCE.
Buy No Sense of Place at Amazon!
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vi Editor by Arnold Robbins

If you use the vi editor, you should have this; if you don’t use the vi editor, don’t start.
Buy vi Editor at Amazon!
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Perl 5 Desktop Reference by Johan Vromans

This was a very useful book until I picked up “Webmaster in a Nutshell”. It used to be a foldout card, but is now a tiny book. If you need a pocket reference for your portable computer, and you don’t carry “Webmaster” around with you, you will find it useful.

Javascript Pocket Reference by David Flanagan

Well, if you really need to use Javascript on your web pages, you’ll probably need this. It does not mention the writable status of javascript properties. But it is compact and covers javascript up to version 1.2. If you use javascript extensively, you’ll probably need a more detailed reference, but if you just use it for hot buttons and movable text, this will do fine. Webmaster in a Nutshell will also give you this information, however, as well as a lot more.
Buy Javascript Pocket Reference at Amazon!
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Apache: The Definitive Guide by Ben Laurie and Peter Laurie

This is the least useful O’Reilly book I’ve ever purchased; it doesn’t cover much more than the on-line help, and in fact seems to be lifted directly from the on-line help. Second edition is a little better, but not much.
Buy Apache: The Definitive Guide at Amazon!
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Jerry

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